In the search for low cost, long distance telephone service, the Internet offers an attractive alternative to traditional telephone networks. Through the Internet, users from around the world can place Internet protocol (IP) telephone calls without incurring additional costs other than those associated with maintaining a connection to the Internet. However, the Internet was not designed for real-time communications, and the underlying transport mechanisms of the Internet may result in delays and the loss of data. Thus, voice communications taking place over the Internet may suffer serious degradation in quality when packets relaying voice communications are lost or delayed.